The Taiwan Crisis And The Events That Led To Its Occurrence (Essay Sample)

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Taiwan Strait Crisis
1. What motivated Taiwan’s President Lee to make such a provocative speech at Cornell?
By the year 1996, the Taiwan Strait Crisis had escalated. President Lee had a private visit to Cornell in the U.S and gave a speech stating that China and Taiwan had a state to state relation, which angered Beijing. The speech that President Lee gave was in Taiwan’s Democratization experience. The People’s Republic of China gave orders for live missiles to be tested off Taiwan’s coast. This was a way of reacting to the first Presidential election Taiwan has ever held. He was seeking diplomatic isolation of the Republic of China. However, the People’s Republic of China (Taiwan) opposed such visits from the Republic of China. The speech he gave at Cornell was considered a humiliation (Charles 7).
2. Why did Chinese President Jiang Zemin respond the way he did?
China and Taiwan needed to reunify, and this called for drastic action. China was worried that President Lee would get more aggressive in his international campaigns and gain the attention of the third world countries and get Taiwan to get into the United Nations. The steps that Lee took of confronting the Chinese and his campaigns were to ensure Taiwan was independent. Lee also did this as a way of undermining the One China principle. The Taiwan nationals rebuffed the Chinese efforts of reconciling and unifying with them. This prompted President Jiang Zemin to propose a plan that was aimed at reconciling these two countries. Jiang suggested a One China two systems which successfully united China with Hong Kong and Macau. The Chinese feared that President Lee would declare Taiwan independent if he were elected the president. President Jiang ordered Chinas military to force Taiwan to obey China’s warning of declaring themselves independent and abide by the One China policy. The missile tests they conducted in the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung were aimed at scaring away commercial shipping at the harbor so as for isolate Taiwan internationally. These efforts also aimed at stopping President Lee’s intention of declaring Taiwan independent.
3. Why did Chinese President Bill Clinton respond the way he did?
Clinton had frequently visited Taiwan, but he was not known as a politician. He promoted different business contracts for the Arkansas companies, and he was an honored dignitary. Taiwan encouraged such visits from Clinton to strengthen their political ties with America. Clinton was hesitant to agree with China’s interests (Patrick 6). Clinton had earlier on supported that China trade with the United States. His presidential campaign criticized President Bush who was the former ambassador to China.
Clinton was worried about the risk that China posed to Taiwan by launching and testing the missiles, and they did not have any defense. His administration continued giving warnings to China about their intended military activities. They were also trying to stop Taiwan from taking any actions that could easily provoke Chinese military escalation. Clinton decided to move the independence battle and the Nimitz groups closer Taiwan since they were concerned about the Chinese military exercises. They tried to show that China could easily target Taiwan.
4. Why were the three players able to avoid the war over this issue?
After the presidential elections in Taiwan, China decided to end its war against Taiwan’s coastline. This demonstrated that the political and military qualities and also that the air force and the navy had resolved and were now in a better position solve and safeguard the unity of the country. China established a diplomatic relationship with Taiwan and Beijing called for a meeting between President Lee and Jiang Zemin, the Chinese president. They both agreed to have an opening of mail li...